At 4.98 million acres, New Jersey is the nation’s fifth smallest state, blessed with a wealth of precious natural resources and unique and diverse landscapes. More than one million acres are publicly owned open space and preserved farmland, and forests comprise nearly 45 percent of its land area, both public and private.
From the ridgetops in its northwestern Highlands Region to the sandy Atlantic Ocean coastline of southern Cape May, the Garden State boasts a wide variety of native flora and fauna as well as thousands of square miles of freshwater and coastal wetlands, bays, estuaries, freshwater lakes and ponds.
New Jersey is also the nation’s most densely populated state, and the most developed. Yet, every day bulldozers gnaw 50 acres of land to make way for another housing development, another road, one more mall. In communities all across the Garden State, once-wide-open spaces now sprout sprawl.
The lure of economic prosperity spurred a cycle of haphazard development, and eclipsed the stark consequences of allowing this kind of growth to continue unchecked for decades. Today, we are forced to face an unfortunate fact: the quality of life we treasure is in trouble.
The rampant sprawl rapidly devouring New Jersey’s open space also threatens to spoil our precious water supplies and other vital natural resources. Out-of-control development clutters our landscape, crowds our schools, and creates time-consuming road congestion that pollutes our air. What’s more, 40 percent of this development is occurring in environmentally sensitive and agricultural areas of the state.
Before all the state’s remaining land is lost, we must find ways to balance New Jersey’s future growth needs with the fundamental needs of its people so everyone can enjoy clean drinking water, clean air, a vibrant economy, good schools, and recreational opportunities outdoors.
The Governor’s Plan
Protecting New Jersey’s water, air, and other precious natural resources from ill-conceived, seemingly illogical land use is among Gov. James E. McGreevey’s top priorities. In his State of the State address this year, he cited sprawl as the single greatest threat to New Jersey’s quality of life. He outlined a plan for substantive solutions that will put the state on a new path of smart growth and safeguard New Jersey’s desirable quality of life.
The governor’s vision for smart growth focuses the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and all other agencies of state government on three central objectives:
Make developed areas healthier, more appealing places—with cleaner air, cleaner water, and more parks and open space;
Reduce the rate at which forests, open space, farmland, and other undeveloped areas are being lost to development;
Promote and accelerate development in urban and suburban areas or other growth areas identified through sound planning.
Indeed, as we wage the battle against sprawl, New Jersey intends to establish itself once again as a national leader on environmental policy. Already, we are making real progress. On Earth Day, for example, Gov. McGreevey took action to safeguard New Jersey’s vital drinking-water supplies from development, giving 15 reservoirs and feeder streams a Category One or C-1 designation, the state’s highest level of water-quality protection.
This landmark action ensures there will be no further degradation to the quality of these reservoirs and streams that supply drinking water to more than 40 percent of New Jersey’s residents.
As a key partner in the governor’s critical Smart Growth initiative, the DEP has taking new, more aggressive action to accelerate brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, and to strengthen protection for the precious water resources we need to provide drinking water to our communities.
Sprawl and Stormwater Runoff
Poorly designed development puts our critical natural resources at risk by increasing the amount of impervious cover and pavement, preventing rainfall from replenishing underground aquifers. New roads and large scattered sites of housing create currents of stormwater runoff that carry trash, road salts, oil and other contaminants into our streams and rivers. By some estimates, nearly 60 percent of current water pollution is attributed to stormwater runoff.
Clearly, better stormwater management is essential to any comprehensive strategy to protect the quality and quantity of drinking water supplies and other water resources. For the first time in 20 years, New Jersey is confronting this challenge; the DEP has proposed two sets of new stormwater regulations.
One set of rules update the state’s Stormwater Management Rules, the first such revision since their original adoption in 1983. The rules are intended to reduce the impact of development on New Jersey’s water resources and stress stricter performance standards for development, including a requirement to maintain 100 percent of the average annual groundwater recharge statewide.
Consistent with Gov. McGreevey’s smart-growth agenda, these rules promote redevelopment in New Jersey’s cities and older suburbs by waiving the 100 percent recharge requirement in those areas. They also promote smart growth by encouraging the use of low-impact site development techniques, maintaining natural vegetation and drainage.
Further, the proposed regulations emphasize water-quality controls. Such protections include requiring maintenance of vegetated buffers along high-quality waterways to help filter pollutants and prevent water-quality degradation. More information is available at: www.njstormwater.org
The second set of stormwater control proposals requires municipalities to develop control plans for stormwater runoff from both existing and new development. The US Environmental Protection Agency mandated these regulations, and all 50 states are now implementing new stormwater management programs.
Permits will be issued for municipalities; for large public complexes such as colleges, prisons, and hospitals; and for highway systems operated by counties and other government agencies. Through local ordinances and programs, municipalities can take common-sense steps to reduce non-point sources of pollution such as limiting pesticide and fertilizer use, requiring proper disposal of yard and pet wastes, and retrofitting storm sewer grates.
Blueprint for Intelligent Growth (BIG) Map
We also are tackling another important challenge: reforming the DEP’s regulatory structure. The unpredictable, "one-size-fits-all" approach often makes it easier and cheaper to target development in the wrong places. In areas considered appropriate for development from an environmental and planning perspective, there are too many obstacles to growth. And there are too few safeguards in areas where natural-resource protection must be paramount.
To change this regulatory system, the DEP earlier this year introduced the Blueprint for Intelligent Growth (BIG) map. The map was developed by overlaying Geographic Information System (GIS) data for natural resources, existing development, infrastructure availability, and state planning areas. After integrating these factors, DEP developed three regulatory categories.
The first category comprises critical natural resource areas that must be preserved and protected. Among them are the vast majority of New Jersey’s remaining wetlands and contiguous forests, endangered and threatened species habitat, high-quality waters designated as Category 1, and other environmentally sensitive areas. These precious natural-resource areas include parks, refuges, and open space already acquired for permanent preservation. Development can still occur in these areas, but only when it meets the strictest regulatory standards.
The map also will accurately depict smart-growth areas where the state wants to encourage development. For these places, the state will streamline and expedite regulatory permitting, and dedicate funding for infrastructure and parks.
The third regulatory category represents areas in which natural resource and infrastructure considerations do not clearly suggest that development should be either discouraged or channeled, so there is a cautious approach to growth in these places.
The map aims to offer clear direction to municipalities and developers, so planners can consider state regulatory issues and funding before proposing new development projects. It ensures environmental rules are clear and predictable, based on infrastructure capacity, natural resource protection, and community planning. The BIG map has generated considerable interest, and during the summer, the DEP will continue consulting with municipal and county officials.
Ultimately, the goal is to integrate the BIG map with the state’s growth management policy map to create a single map that provides a unified vision of how New Jersey should grow in the future.
New Jersey has a long, proud history of safeguarding its wealth of natural resources. We are now on the threshold of a new generation of environmental protection, one that challenges us to embrace holistic approaches that combat sprawling development, create livable communities, redevelop and revitalize our cities and towns, improve our precious water resources, and ultimately, enhance the overall quality of our lives.
Bradley M. Campbell is commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
NESEA Network